Hawaiian remains committed to the A350-800

Hawaiian Airlines has reiterated its commitment to the Airbus A350-800 despite an increasing number of carriers switching to the larger -900 variant.

The airline's CEO Mark Dunkerley, while not ruling out the -900, said he believes the -800 better fits the carrier's needs.

"At the moment, that is certainly our belief," he said.

Hawaiian has six A350-800s on order, to be delivered from 2017.

Dunkerley noted that the question of switching to the -900s will be one that the airline will revisit from time to time but indicated that the matter is not a priority for the carrier right now. "We are open to assessing the -900s," said Dunkerley, adding that the issue is ultimately not "pressing".

Airbus has pushed entry into service for the -800 to mid-2016 from the second half of 2014 to focus its resources on the -900, which will make its first flight by year-end 2012.

The airframer has insisted it will build the -800, despite having a number of customers switching to the -900s and not having won any new orders for the -800 in the last three years.

Now that Etihad Airways has elected to stop funding Air Berlin, forcing the German carrier to file for assembly, a central question is which parts of the business can continue to operate in the long term.